There's been some discussion of comic shops, good and bad, lately. I've been doing my best not to respond "well, at least you had/have a damn comic shop!" although I imagine it's also quite frustrating to have what ought to be one of your favorite places in town turn out to be loathesome and vile.
I get mine by mail, ordering them online ahead of time.
When I was younger, the newsstand in the next town over was my best friend. They had an actual spinning rack with nothing but comics in it. But that was the next town over. Where we usually went, there was nothing of that sort.
But even in a desert there are bound to be a few oases.
Here are some places I managed to find comics as a kid:
- Loosely thrown in piles in a junk shop--not many, but I did get some Grell Legion of Superheroes there.
- Jammed into the back bottom row of the magazine rack at the grocery store.
- Packed in threes in plastic bags at the corner store. These comics had either no front cover or only 2/3 of a front cover. This did not bother me in the least since they were very, very cheap. The only disadvantage was that you could only see the two outside books, and had to kind of surreptitiously slide them around to maybe get a glimpse of the one in the middle (since Marvels at the time generally had the title of the book at the top of the first page, this was sometimes possible). I know I picked up a few of Tigra's early appearances like this.
So to me, the idea of a shop devoted entirely to comics was amazing. Visited my first when I was 17 or 18, on a class trip. Picked up a bunch of Legion of Superheroes back issues. Read them in study hall when we got back. :)
Now, if we had a local comic shop now, I'd like to think that I'd go there on a regular basis. I imagine that I would. I'm sure I'd try it out in any case. I am generally in favor of supporting local businesses. But the mail-order internet thing has sort of spoiled me in that I've gotten used to being sure of getting all the comics I want, every month. I've heard so many people talk about missing out on things they've got on their pull list because their local shop miscalculated what they'd need. I think I might actually be picky.
1 comment:
i admire your freedom. i am a slave to my shop.
as for the comic shop experience people talk about. being able to chat up with people likewise interested.
if blogging doesn't give you your fix of that. i've found myself at barnes and nobles in the graphic novels isle engaged in meaningful conversations with strangers about elseworlds graphic novels.
Post a Comment